The Paladin

I love the paladins. If not for the Witch, Paladin would be my favorite class in the entire game. Unfortunately people do not seem to like it too much due to its Code and moral restrictions. I will therefore try to make people love Paladins by showcasing five builds in this document.

The Base Paladin

A straight Paladin build whose goal is going to illustrate just how awesome Paladins can be by themselves, let alone with archetypes and prestige classes.

Class

Paladin 20

Race

Human, we are putting that floating +2 in Strength.

Ability Scores

15Point-Buy

Str 16/Dex 10/Con 14/Int 10/Wis 10/Cha 14 Put everything in Strength here.

20Point-Buy

Str 18/Dex 10/Con 14/Int 10/Wis 10/Cha 14 Once again everything in Strength

25Point-Buy

Str 18/Dex 13/Con 14/Int 10/Wis 10/Cha 15 Round up Charisma then everything in Strength.

Traits

Magical Knack will increase your Caster level by +2, and since Paladins have a Caster level of Paladin LvL-3, this will help us later with feats and making our buffs last much longer.

Armor Expert will reduce our armor penalty greatly helping our already small selection of skills.

Favored Class Bonus

We have a great AC and very good saves, plus our HP is decent and we can self-heal as a swift action, we can allow ourselves to put these in Skills.

Skills

We want Diplomacy as we are a face. Handle Animal and Ride will be mandatory rapidly due to our Divine Bond, put at least one point in Knowledge(Nobility) and Knowledge(Religion), then everything else in Sense Motive.

Feats by Level

1-Noble Scion(Scion of War)

Human Bonus-Power Attack

3-Shield Focus

5-Mounted Combat

7-Ride-By Attack

9-Fearless Aura

11-Spirited Charge

13-Improved Initiative

15-Extra Lay on Hands

17-Lightning Reflexes

19-Leadership

Noble Scion makes us a noble and also gives us our Charisma to Initiative instead of dex which is all kinds of “yes”. Power Attack is duh, Shield Focus increases our AC by +1 whenever we are using a shield which is amazing, Mounted Combat, Ride-By Attack and Spirited Charge makes full use of your Steed, Fearless Aura doubles the range of your Aura of Courage ability and instead of giving your allies a +4 against fear, you make them downright immune to it. Lightning Reflexes help your one saving throw that is lacking a bit, Extra Lay on Hands makes you ultimately a tad more resilient. Finally, I do not think anyone would really argue against Leadership at lvl 19 to get yourself a squire and it fits as a noble knight too to have your own private army.

Mercies by Level

3-Sickened

6-Diseased

9-Nauseated

12-Paralyzed

15-Stunned

18-Blinded

Equipment

Get yourself a Longsword, a Heavy Shield, a Holy Symbol and the best armor you can afford. If you still have money after that, invest in some sort of piercing weapon and bludgeoning weapon for DR covering.

Final Thoughts on the Build

You are extremely resilient via your very high AC, good HP, downright immense saving throws and all them immunities. And you can Lay on Hands yourself as a swift action, which means you can still do your full attack action anyway. You are great both on foot or on your mount, your social skills are well maintained making you a perfectly acceptable face character, and your Mercies can get rid allies of very nasty conditions. Plus you get spells from admittedly a very small, but extremely good spell list on top of being able to Channel Positive Energy, Smite Evil and all these other goodies you can do.

And people say Paladins are one trick ponies??? Ha! Ha! I say!

The Oradin

In-Combat healing is a terrible option as any round you spend healing someone is a round you are not killing the enemy, which means unless absolutely crucial that a certain party member stays up, it means restricting in-combat healing to very very specific situations, and most healing taking place immediately after combat.

If only there was a way to do both…

Well, I do have a solution for you. Enters the Oradin, a Paladin/Oracle multiclass that if built correctly, becomes the single best healer in the entire game.

We will be taking the Paladin’s Hospitalier Archetype and the Oracle’s Pei Zin Practitioner. Our leveling should look like the following:

Class

Paladin 2/Oracle 4/Paladin +14

Race

We will be going for a Angel-Blooded Aasimar.

Ability Scores

Round up Str if odd, then put everything in Charisma

15Point-Buy

Str 16/Dex 10/Con 14/Int 10/Wis 10/Cha 16

20Point-Buy

Str 16/Dex 10/Con 14/Int 10/Wis 10/Cha 18

25Point-Buy

Str 15/Dex 10/Con 14/Int 10/Wis 10/Cha 20

Traits

Reactionary for a bonus on Initiative, Stalwart of the Society for an extra +1 on Aura of Courage bonus.

Favored Class Bonus

We will need tons of HP due to our method of healing, so HP it is.

Skills

Diplomacy and divide the rest between Ride and Handle Animal.

Oracle Curse, Mystery and Revelations

We are taking the Life Mystery, at level one our Revelation is replaced by the Pei Zin Practitioner’s Healer’s Way, which gives us an additional pool of Lay on Hands like power that works with feats dedicated to Lay on Hands. Your third level Revelation will be Life Link which allows you to link with your level of oracle in people and have them transfer 5 hp of damage each to you at the beginning of your round. Now why would we do that?

Because we can heal ourselves as a swift action via Lay on Hands. So we take our allies damage onto ourselves and we heal ourself as a swift action, leaving us more action to heal even more, or to attack. Our Curse will be Lame so we will be slower(we don’t really care because we will be mounted anyway) but gain some great resistances.

Feats by Level

1-Fey Foundling

3-Power Attack

5-Mounted Combat

7-Hands of Valor

9-Greater Mercy

11-Selective Channelling

13-Ultimate Mercy

15-Extra Lay on Hands

17-Extra Lay on Hands

19-Extra Lay on Hands

Fey Foundling makes our Life Link+Lay on Hands combination that much more effective as we heal ourselves a lot more. Power Attack is a no-brainer and Mounted Combat all but nullifies our Curse’s drawback. Hands of Valor means that each time we heal ourselves we get affected by the equivalent of a cracked up Heroism spell.

Ultimate Mercy lets us spend 10 uses of Lay on Hands to Raise Dead someone with no drawback. This is huge. Which is why we will need as many Extra Lay on Hands as we can after that. Selective Channeling makes it so only our allies get impacted by our Channel Energy and we don’t end up accidentally healing our enemies.

Equipment

Get yourself a Guisarme and the best armor you can get, plus a Holy Symbol.

Final Thoughts on the Build

Our strategy is at the beginning of the day to use our Life Link and when we get into a fight, spend our swift action to heal ourselves and then smack people over the head with our Guisarme for fairly big damage at a reach, or if extra healing is needed, Channel Energy since as a Hospitaler it doesn’t consume our Lay on Hands like a regular Paladin. This means you are constantly healing in combat all your allies, while still making a great contribution to damage yourself.

The Shadowbane Knight

One of the major weaknesses of the Paladin is usually their lack of mobility, and one of the big complaints against paladins is their lack of options in combat. Now, I have already addressed both of these via our Mount and the fact that we can spell, diplomacy, buff allies, heal, damage undeads etc, but I really want to hammer the point here with this build to illustrate how both being mobile and immobile have their advantages.

We will be taking the Stonelord Archetype and the Shadowdancer Prestige Class. Wild I know. Our leveling should look like the following:

Class

Paladin 5/Shadowdancer 10/Paladin +5

Race

As a Stonelord, we must be Dwarf, so Dwarf it is.

Ability Scores

Round up Constitution if odd, then everything in Strength.

15Point-Buy

Str 16/Dex 13/Con 14/Int 10/Wis 10/Cha 10

20Point-Buy

Str 17/Dex 13/Con 14/Int 10/Wis 12/Cha 10

25Point-Buy

Str 18/Dex 13/Con 15/Int 10/Wis 12/Cha 10

Traits

Armor Expert for reduced penalties in armor, Silent Hunter for Stealth as a Class Skill

Favored Class Bonus

HP, we are a tank of sort and thus we will need those.

Skills

Stealth and at least two ranks in Perform(Dance). We can thereafter increase our Acrobatics and Perception.

Feats by Level

1-Dodge

3-Mobility

5-Combat Reflexes

7-Power Attack

9-Shield Focus

11-Vital Strike

13-Improved Vital Strike

15-Armor Focus(Full Plate)

17-Improved Shield Bash

19-Greater Vital Strike

Via our increased mobility from Shadowdancer, Combat Reflexes combined with good positioning can cause havoc in enemy ranks, and since we can be very mobile, Vital Strike becomes a genuine good idea to invest in. Shield Focus and Armor Focus increases our already immense AC, and Power Attack is just extra damage.

Shadowdancer

Shadowdancer is actually a fantastic Prestige Class for Paladins, weirdly enough. It gives us great mobility, Improved Uncanny Dodge, if we get caught without armor Evasion and later Improved Evasion, some great Spell-Like Abilities, a Shadow Companion which can debuff our enemies like crazy, the ability to teleport between shadows, and when in shadows, gain a DR 10/- which is massive. You also gain a few Rogue Talents at the following levels:

8-Fast Stealth

11-Cloying Shades

14-Positioning Attack

Stonelord

Stonelord gives you a Natural Armor bonus and a DR of up to 5/Adamantine which is very nice, and we exchange our Smite Evil for Stonestrike, letting us consider our attacks as both adamantine and magical, and give ourselves a small damage bonus too, and more often than Smite Evil too. We also get the Stalwart Defender’s Defensive Stance, and a Earth Elemental Companion which is very cool.

Equipment

A Dwarven Waraxe, a Heavy Shield, a Holy Symbol and the best armor you can afford. Eventually a Full Plate armor.

Final Thoughts on the Build

We evolve at two extremes. We either are moving all over the place from shadows to shadow to get to the best positioning possible and attack the spellcasters at the rear, or we stand our ground and become all but an immovable object. We get two great companions, a Earth Elemental and a Shadow for extra presence on the battlefield, we deal great damage regardless of if we move or not, and we can still Lay on Hands ourselves for even more sustainability and our AC, assuming non magical equipment, is at 28. Again, that is before any magical bonus at all. Meaning we can expect to hit high 30s up to 40 AC by level 20, yet remain extremely mobile if we need to. This is a crazy good build.

The Blackguard

Where Good exists, Evil follows, as it is the dichotomy of mankind. Paladins have an Alternative Class named Antipaladin and they are the single best fear based class in the entire game. So I wanted to make a dedicated build for them. We will be taking the Tyrant Antipaladin Archetype and the Sanguine Angel Prestige Class.

Our leveling should look like the following:

Class

Antipaladin 5/Sanguine Angel 10/Antipaladin+5

Race

Human, put that floating +2 into Dexterity.

Ability Scores

Put Everything into Strength.

15Point-Buy

Str 15/Dex 17/Con 10/Int 10/Wis 7/Cha 14

20Point-Buy

Str 16/Dex 17/Con 10/Int 10/Wis 8/Cha 14

25Point-Buy

Str 17/Dex 17/Con 10/Int 10/Wis 10/Cha 14

Traits

Armor Expert for reduced Armor Penalties, Adopted to get Tusked for an extra natural melee attack.

Favored Class Bonus

HP HP HP, we will go in melee with a d10hit flat otherwise and as an Antipaladin we don’t get Lay on Hands. We need more HP

Skills

Intimidate, Ride, Stealth or Disguise, up to your fancy. Perception.

Feats by Level

1-Power Attack Human Bonus-Iron Will

3-Weapon Focus(Longsword)

5-Improved Shield Bash

7-Cornugon Smash

9-Point-Blank Shot Bonus

10-Alertness

11-Precise Shot

13-Rapid Shot Bonus

14-Diehard

15-Manyshot

17-Signature Skill(Intimidate)

19-Intimidating Prowess

Who would have expected an Intimidancer Switch Hitter build huh.

Power Attack+Weapon Focus+Cornugon Smash are our primary method of melee combat, and we can also smack our enemies with our Improved Shield Bash. Signature Skill makes it that when we Demoralize a target that is already shaken, we can upgrade the fear level, rapidly making everyone around us Panicked. As for Precise Shot+Rapid Shot+Manyshot, they make us quite a powerful ranged combatant and with our high Strength, we don’t really need Extra damage feats like Deadly Aim for this build.

Cruelties by Level

3-Shaken

16-Staggered

19-Frightened

We would need to use our Touch of Corruption ability to transmit those which is okay, but if we were to get a Conductive Longsword, we are now making our target Frightened and then demoralize everyone via Cornugon Smash, and since we have Aura of Cowardice, even creatures that are normally immune to fear effects will not be running away from us in total panic.

Sanguine Angel

As a Sanguine Angel we get quite a few bonuses, eventually we turn into a Devil and gain black feathered wings and elemental resistances. We also gain special abilities named Tyrant’s Disciplines which we get at the following levels:

7-Furious Huntress

9-Merciless Massacre

11-Erinye’s Fury

13-Kinslayer

15-Unyielding

Furious Huntress lets us cap attacks with bows from Strength instead of Dexterity which is great for our attack bonus, Merciless Massacre make us deal even more damage to creatures frightened of us, Erinye’s Fury let us enter a form of lesser Rage that doesn’t hit

our defenses, Kinslayer gives us Favored Enemy against Humans and Unyielding gives us a small DR that is always welcomed.

Equipment

A Heavy Shield, a Longsword, a Longbow, a Unholy Symbol and the best armor we can afford (we will eventually be aiming for a set of Gray Maiden armor).

Final Thoughts on the Build

We are a fierce Switch-Hitter that can deal massive melee and range damage, send our foes into a panic, get rid of downright Immunities to Fear, and fly around starting only level 15 for great maneuverability. We will take the Summoned Creature for our companion, if we had one more level in Antipaladin we would have gotten an Erinye, but we still get a Fiendish Dire Lion as a mount this way, allowing some Pounce shenanigans at higher levels. A very powerful damage dealer that is still fairly tanky and can attack at range too with great mobility and massive fear debuffs. A very, very powerful build.

Crusader

As we have seen with the previous build, evil can be very, very powerful and tempting as a route to take. Evil is ever so present and yet some still chose to be a paladin, not because they are a noble knight and that is righteous and honorable, or because they want to dedicate their lives to healing, or become a great defender of their people. They do it because someone has to. Standing against evil is the hardest thing someone can endeavor themselves to do, a noble sacrifice so that light still prevails despite all odds. This is a build to honor that ideal. Where we start crawling in the darkness, only to achieve a personal light above all others.

We will take the Tortured Crusader Archetype, one level of Vigilante and the Heritor Knight

Prestige Class. Our leveling should look like the following:

Class

Paladin 2/Vigilante 1/Paladin +3/Heritor Knight 10/Paladin +4

Race

We are going for human once again, and put that floating +2 into Strength.

Ability Scores

15Point-Buy

Str 16/Dex 10/Con 10/Int 10/Wis 14/Cha 14 Everything in Strength

20Point-Buy

Str 17/Dex 12/Con 11/Int 10/Wis 14/Cha 14 Everything in Strength

25Point-Buy

Str 18/Dex 12/Con 13/Int 10/Wis 14/Cha 14

Round up Constitution, then everything in Strength.

Traits

Armor Expert for lessened armor penalties, Birthmark to always have our Holy Symbol on us.

Favored Class Bonus

We are standing alone against the darkness, HP.

Skills

Stealth, Ride, Knowledge(Religion), Use Magic Devices, Survival.

Feats by Level

1-Power Attack

Human Bonus-Weapon Focus(Longsword)

3-Iron Will

5-Skill Focus(Knowledge:Religion)

7-Mounted Combat

9-Ride-By Attack

11-Spirited Charge

Bonus 12-Vital Strike

Bonus 12-Improved Vital Strike

13-Weapon Specialization(Longsword)

15-Greater Weapon Focus(Longsword)

17-Greater Vital Strike

19-Improved Critical(Longsword)

We are a fairly powerful mounted combatant via Mounted Combat, Ride-By Attack and Spirited Charge, doubly so via the Vital Strike feats chain. We are still very good on foot with our Longsword as Heritor Knight counts as Fighter for feats, letting us grab Weapon Specialization.

Heritor Knight

We get a bunch of very, very good bonuses against various effects, can achieve downright miracles like insta-killing for good undeads, shut down flying creatures and rejuvenating allies and protecting them against all kinds of evils. And the more time passes, the more our physical features come to resemble The Inheritor’s, eventually letting us Air Walk permanently, meaning no evils can escape our Righteous Crusade.

Equipment

A Longsword, a Shield and the best armor you can get.

Final Thoughts on the Build

This takes everything the Paladin is and cranks it up to eleven. Sure you can no longer Lay on Hands allies but you gain something similar anyway from Heritor Knight, you get more skills, immense bonuses on your Smites, your Mounted Companion is well protected via your feats, and you are everything that a righteous knight should be, yet can still act with modesty, retreating back into anonymity and into the shadows to await the next evil to conquer. This is unironically one of my favorite builds now.